10 Times Streaming Era Star Trek Went Apocalyptic
7. The Burn Could Return - Su'Kal
The Burn is the infamous marmite invention in recent Star Trek. Though thoroughly developed and explained, the revelation that it was caused by a crying child is still a hard pill to swallow. Though, in fairness, what is a good reason to wipe out most space-faring vessels in a single moment?
While the original Burn took place more than a century before the events of Discovery's third season, its impact was such that Starfleet was crippled, the Federation had severely dwindled, and both the Emerald Chain and later the Venari Ral had increased their threat status. Discovering the source of the Burn at the centre of the Verubin Nebula changed everything.
The Emerald Chain was more than a mild threat, yet they were still bound by the logistics of space travel. Though they intended to steal the Discovery and thus her Spore Drive, without either of them, they were ships with limited Dilithium. Su'Kal, the child who grew up alone on Theta Zeta, had been connected to the Dilithium-rich world while in utero.
It was his own pain at the discovery of his mother's corpse that sent the shockwave out through the stars, linking to every active piece of Dilithium in the galaxy, rendering it inert. This resulted in thousands of warp core breaches. Over a century later, the same thing threatened to recur. While Saru desperately attempted to keep Su'Kal calm, the latter's deteriorating emotional state left the galaxy on the edge of a new shockwave, one only prevented by Saru at the last moment.